Referrals for genetic testing more than doubled across the UK after actress Angelina Jolie announced in May that she proactively underwent a double mastectomy due to testing positive for a BRCA1 gene…

The wage gap between government employees and the private sector is already large and growing. Now there will be a gap in benefits due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (AKA Obamacare…

A new study uses tree rings to document arroyo evolution along the lower Rio Puerco and Chaco Wash in northern New Mexico. Arroyos are deep, oversized channels that have vertical or steeply cut walls…

Five years ago, it was good luck finding a hotel anywhere near the rural areas where natural gas extraction - fracking - was taking place. The boom in natural gas meant a boom in employment and a…

Miranda is a small, icy moon of Uranus and one of the most visually striking and enigmatic bodies in the solar system. Despite its relatively small size, Miranda appears to have experienced an…

Researchers at Harvard School of Medicine and the University at Buffalo have discovered a sleep-promoting circuit located deep in the primitive brainstem, only the second "sleep node" identified in…

A new paper believes it can measure the precision with which people make decisions - by pupil size before they are presented with any information. Spontaneous, moment-to-moment fluctuations in…

Investigators have announced discovery of a new molecule, the first of its kind, which allows for the multiplication of stem cells in a unit of cord blood. Umbilical cord blood contains adult stem…

Metoera. Credit:Panos Photographia/Flickr By Steve Ellen, Monash University Everyday life is full of mini-ethical moments. Do you own up to being under charged? Do you push in when the traffic is…

Even a single dose of  the commonly prescribed antidepressant SSRI (serotonin reuptake inhibitor) is enough to produce dramatic changes in the functional architecture of the human brain. Brain…

To fight leukemia, we have to fight on its terms, and that means understanding the nature of the fight for superiority between mutated genes and normal genes, according to a paper that investigated…

Tropical rabbitfish have devastated algal forests in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and pose a major threat to the entire Mediterranean basin if their distribution continues to expand as the climate…

Hurricane Polo still appears rounded in imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite today at 10:15 a.m. EDT  but forecasters expect that to change. The image showed thunderstorms wrapping…

The Tambora volcanic eruption in 1815 is famous for its impact on climate worldwide. As a result, the year 1816 was given memorable names such as 'Eighteen-Hundred-and-Froze-to-Death', the 'Year of…

Anyone who tells you they have a super food or a potion to impact a complex trait is sellinf you something. Life is rarely simple. The things we care about most, from crop yields to disease risks,…

For obvious reasons spaceflight has been reserved for governments and the very wealthy. And when it comes to governments, the criteria are stringent. They will get thousands of applications per year…

It seems that CERN and the American Physical Society APS have struck a deal to make every article published by CERN in certain APS journals  open access.  The announcement I saw read this.…

In American culture, media and men are criticized for how women feel about their bodies while in Europe women are given more credit for being able to decide for themselves how they feel. …

Most dogs are happy and they are "man's best friend" because they brighten our day. If you rescue a starving dog they will love you forever whereas if you rescue a starving human, in a week they will…

While abortion is a common feature of the developed world, there remains some controversy about when it should be allowed. Only the United States and Canada still allow late-term abortion on demand…